Awujo Studios’ sneaker designs get international recognition

At 25 years old, Keron Nelson’s sneaker game is already enough to possibly rival veteran sneakerheads.

Nelson has about 20 pairs in his personal collection – including popular brands Nike Air Force 1’s and Jordan – with many more pairs that he has designed for local and foreign clients as far as Norway.

Nelson, owner of Awujo Studios speaks candidly to Newsday about how he was able to turn his hobby into a profitable business which has been growing in popularity in the sneaker world.

Sneakerheads is a term used to describe a person who wears and collects sneakers as a hobby, and the already massive following grows every year with the release of designer shoes, some of which are branded by popular figures in sport.

However, overly-priced brand-named sneakers are not the only way to enjoy cool kicks as many people prefer unique designs, which has given rise to trends such as painting and drawing designs on new and old sneakers.

The name, Awujo, has significant meaning to Nelson, meaning society in Yoruba.

Nelson, who only began creating designs on sneakers as a personal hobby, was able to market himself on social media and has since gained international recognition for his work.

“While I was in the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), I sold clothes to make money and then I came across customisation and I decided to try it,” he said. “The idea was to customise shoes and tees to sell alongside the shoes, then the shoes became the main thing.”

Nelson started in business in 2016, during his second year where he studied physical education. He now works in a primary school, preparing standard four students for their Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams and works on his sneaker business part-time.

He has since converted his room at his Princes Town home into a studio and hopes to have a storefront one day, eventually offering courses to others who want to learn how to transform their shoes.

Although he has no formal training, he began drawing and sketching some of his favourite anime characters in form three.

“I just try to create something new, something that was never done before. I would take from different shows, mainly Naruto (a popular anime). That’s my favourite show. That influenced me a lot.

“I always liked to draw and from watching the show I started drawing the characters and developed my drawing skills form there.”

Eventually people began noticing his designs and requested he do the same with their favourite TV show and movie characters, he said.

After marketing himself and his brand on various social media sites for sneaker heads, he has gotten a few international orders from Canada, Georgia, California and New York, Israel and Norway.

“Sneaker pages on Instagram would promote customed shoes like what I do. Because they are foreign pages, foreigners reach out to me occasionally.”

He said there are pages, such as The Custom Movement on Instagram, that promote creatives from all over the world. “Any artist can join and upload content. I’ve gotten international sales since I joined last year.”

Nelson also does larger canvas pieces. His favourite at the moment is a large painting of four Naruto characters.

One of his favourite sneaker designs is a shoe branding he did for himself for his birthday. “I put my branding on a shoe for the first time. I did it in a way where I changed the Nike sign on the shoe. I have a bunch of shoes I did for customers that can also fall within favourites.”

He said while sometimes he provides the shoes, customers would often bring their shoes to him to design.

“I can work on any kind of leather (including) most Nike Air Force 1s or Jordan 1s. Air Force 1s are a popular shoe. It’s trending constantly. It has good panels to work on (and) it’s good for colour blocking and drawing characters.

“You have the room. It is ideal to work on. There are others that people are not aware of but this one is the most popular for consumers. Most people will have an all-white in their collection.”

Although he has nearly 20 shoes in his collection, Nelson joked that he wears the same pairs almost every day. “I grab the same two every time I go out. I’m trying to wear more.”

Pricing for his designs can range from $500 to $1,500, depending on the detail the customer asks for.

Nelson designed a pair for soca artiste Nailah Blackman based on her song Bodum Bodum. He presented it to her on July 16.

"I presented Nailah Blackman with her own custom sneaker which features a design based on the music video for her song Bodum Bodum. The sneaker is painted in light peach, with waves and horses to represent the scenes of the music video's intro. The tongue tags were removed and replaced with the song title Bodum Bodum, and to top it off, I added an additional pair of peach-colour laces to the top of the sneaker."

Nelson said he has also worked on more personal items such as creating his own characters with an accompanying short story.

Although he paused the project to work on other things, he said it represents the type of concepts he would like to work on in the future. “I did it last year and put it out for Emancipation Day. People liked it.”

Nelson said he would like to travel to the US to see how his work is received. “It’s just to try somewhere else, see how it goes and see the response.”

He also said because of the success of his business, he may also take businesses courses in the future to further develop his entrepreneurial skills.

“I’ve developed a liking to business,” he said, adding he would like to expand his already growing brand.

“Maybe if I get big enough, I can go into sports as well, even open a sport academy.

Nelson took part in Republic Bank’s Art of Banking competition recently where he won the people’s choice for credit card design.

He can be contacted through his Instagram page @rocc_boyyy or 322-4569.